Every substantial piece of writing – including a website – needs an editorial style sheet which records decisions made about spelling, capitalisation, abbreviations and more. It is used by both editors and authors to maintain consistency across the site. This is a simple example.

Site

www.spiegelweb.com.au

Contact

Elizabeth Spiegel

Dictionary

Macquarie Dictionary online

Style manual

Style Manual for authors, editors and printers, 6th edition

Metadata

Every page has a unique and meaningful title; maximum length 70 characters.
Every page has a unique and meaningful description, maximum length 140 characters.

Links

Links must be self-explanatory and unique on the page (no ‘click here’ ‘more…’ etc).
Links to download files open in new tab; specify file type and size in link.
Links to other sites open in new tab and have ‘other site’ icon Link to other site - opens in new tab.

Capitalisation

Minimal
Family history blog only: surnames of relatives ALL CAPS

Punctuation

Minimal
Dashes: spaced en dash
Lists: no ‘and’ at end of penultimate point unless essential for clarity
Serial comma: only where required for clarity
Quotes: single quote, double for quotes within quotes

Dates/time

Centuries: twentieth century (not 20th)
Decades: 1860s
Years: 1066 no AD
Spans: 1997–99 not 1997–1999 (en dash)
Full date: 5 March 1965; in tables 5 Mar 65
Financial years: 1997-98; specify ‘financial year’ unless clear from context
Time: 1.30pm

Other numbers

One to ten: spell out
11+: numerals
Thousand separator comma from 1,000 on

Measurements

Metric units; spell out in full except in tables

Names, titles and pronouns

John Smith (first, last)
Titles: omit Mr, include Major
No full points after initials, no space between multiple initials
Singular they/them when referring to a person of unknown gender

Abbreviations

Spell out first use on each page or post: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) – exceptions in word list

Word list

e-mail
HTML
PDF
the USA, US courts
web, website but web page